who’s genius banning books this time?

wei, apa ni? what happened to all that talk about reading campaign, hah? i thought that measures were suppose to be taken to encourage a more mature reading community and what do we have here? a ban on books? unbelievable. after reading this from sharon’s blog, i had to go and see for myself. the link brings me here where i am dumbfounded by the logic in the list.

honestly, i don’t know where to start.firstly and perhaps most stupidly, they are banning children’s book. among others:

• Read-Aloud Children’s Classics
• Sea Sale: SpongeBob Squarepants
• Counting Adventures Sound Activity Book, by Disney
• Dora’s Fiesta Adventure ActivePoint Book Set! [ILLUSTRATED] (Hardcover)
• MUSIC FOR SLEEPY BABIES
• Count On Me (Spongebob Square Pants)
• The Wiggles Shop Wiggly Jukebox

aiyoh, who do these people think they are anyway? the argument of course, is that hey, there are other books out there for kids, right? well sure, there are also other things more important to do besides banning books also such as fixing the literacy glitch in our national education system, so why don’t you go and do that instead? ohhh… i know… is this because spongebob lives in a pineapple at a place called bikini bottom, la? and the wiggles, well anyone can tell that the purple octopus is obviously gay, so that’s why you’re banning the colouring book, la? – it is interesting to know which astro channels these people have been watching – playhouse disney!!!

next, the intellectual books. someone somewhere is seriously undermining the intellectual capacity of the reading malaysians by banning history books, economics books and books that pertaining to discovery sciences. lets look at what they’re banning:

• Beauty of Yixing Teapots (Hardcover)
• The Private Life of Chairman Mao (Paperback)
• Company to Company Teacher’s Book (Paperback)
• Composition (The Photographer’s Guide To…) (Paperback)
• Practice of Business Statistics (Hardcover)
• Mao: A Life
• The Private Life of Chairman Mao (Paperback)
• Scrapbook (Paperback)
• The Swimming-pool Library (Paperback)
• E-tales: The Best (and Worst) of Internet Humour (Hardcover)
• Life on Earth: And Other Pieces (New Cambridge English Course) (Paperback)
• Making Globalization Work (Hardcover)

either someone must seriously hate mao, or mao had been naughty sometime and we’re in the conspiracy to cover up the expose. we have seriously got to move away from the communism equals evil state of mind, people. i am sure that i am not the only one SICK AND TIRED of all the drama melayu that still portrays the japanese occupation and british colonialism and how we weak malaysians suffered under the evil tyrants. tolonglah. lembik sangat ke kita ni? bodoh sangat ke kita ni? come 2007, it would have been FIFTY years of independence. cukup la of glorifying the wars. i’m sure that we have come to a point that we are smart enough the learn from all of this. apa salahnya we learn about great people?

and you got to be kidding me when you say a photography composition book is being banned. you just got to look at the wannabe photographer bloggers to see how awful their compositions are and how they are in dire need of some technical expertise. this is what happens if they don’t read books. tak baca macam mana nak guna apperture properly, tak baca macam mana nak pakai flash lighting betul-betul.

and now we come to the touchy topic of the so-called adults book. here is where we learn theimportance of things taken IN CONTEXT. of course, there are the dirty books, but surely someone is joking when they decide to ban…

• Well Woman’s Sourcebook (Hardcover)
• Things a Woman Should Know About Seduction (Paperback)
• “Vogue” Make-up (Paperback)
• Sexual Intelligence (Hardcover)
• Anatomy for the Artist: They Dynamics of Human Form (Paperback)
• How to Talk to Your Child About Sex: It’s Best to Start Early, But It’s Never Too Late : a Step-by-Step Guide for Every Age (Paperback)
• Sex,Lies and Stereotypes: Challenging Views of Women, Men, and Relationships (Paperback)
• Breastfeeding Your Baby: Revised Edition (Paperback)

inilah sebabnya malaysians jadi bodoh. they’re banning important books now. hasn’t it occured to them that it IS important that women understand how seduction works so that they don’t fall int such traps? and weren’t the government hollering about sex education just a coupla months back? sampai sekarang nothig tangible has come out of it, so why ban a book if it will advice parents about it? we all know that silence and being dumb about the issue is not working. teenagers especially, will eventually get experimental – don’t you think it is imprtant that parents are not only aware of this process but are also equiped to address it?

and eh… someone tell me why a book on breastfeeding is banned? i know! in case some pervert gets hold of the book and uses it to wank off, right? so it is okay that babies are deprived of the vital nutrients of the mother’s milk for this la?

i am not going to discuss here my personal opinions on dirty books appearing on the bookshelf. someone should take to browsing the magazine shelves. but really, my last issue of contention is on the fiction works of salman rushdie, robert jordan, irwing welsh, rebecca wells and others whose titles have appeared in the list. put it this way la, if they have actually READ the books and think it is inappropriate, then we can open a forum for a more conclusive verdict.

i must point out though for personal experience, that salman rushdie’s books for one, are very difficult to read and very easy to misunderstand. i applaud anyone who can get past ten pages of midnight’s children and still be in line with the writer’s train of thought.

and after all this, nak ban filem la, nak ban buku la, god knows what they’ll do next… the prices of books are still as high as ever. in conclusion, i don’ think anyone is doing ANYTHING at all. i am appalled by the move to ban books.

nampak sangat that someone had their priorities in all the wrong places. if you in JB got so much spare change and time on your hands, how’s about cleaning the garbage at the coastal area where the causeway is? the river cruise leaving from danga bay is a failure because of this very pollution. or seriously look into doing something about the mat rempits near the free trade zone? i have this crazy idea that if they are given the proper books while they were in pre-school, they would not be wasting time on the streets like they are now.